Eric Betzig
Prize share: 1/3
Stefan W. Hell
Prize share: 1/3
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded jointly to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy".
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014
Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William Moerner
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Press Release
8 October 2014
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2014 to
Eric Betzig
Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA,
Stefan W. Hell
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, and German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
and
William E. Moerner
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
“for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”
Surpassing the limitations of the light microscope
For a long time optical microscopy was held back by a
presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution
than half the wavelength of light. Helped by fluorescent molecules the
Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2014 ingeniously circumvented this
limitation. Their ground-breaking work has brought optical microscopy
into the nanodimension.
In what has become known as nanoscopy,
scientists visualize the pathways of individual molecules inside living
cells. They can see how molecules create synapses between nerve cells in
the brain; they can track proteins involved in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
and Huntington’s diseases as they aggregate; they follow individual
proteins in fertilized eggs as these divide into embryos.
It was all but obvious that scientists should ever be able to study
living cells in the tiniest molecular detail. In 1873, the microscopist
Ernst Abbe stipulated a physical limit for the maximum resolution of
traditional optical microscopy: it could never become better than 0.2
micrometres. Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner
are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 for having bypassed this
limit. Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer
into the nanoworld.
Two separate principles are rewarded. One enables the method stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy,
developed by Stefan Hell in 2000. Two laser beams are utilized; one
stimulates fluorescent molecules to glow, another cancels out all
fluorescence except for that in a nanometre-sized volume. Scanning over
the sample, nanometre for nanometre, yields an image with a resolution
better than Abbe’s stipulated limit.
Eric Betzig and William Moerner, working separately, laid the foundation for the second method, single-molecule microscopy.
The method relies upon the possibility to turn the fluorescence of
individual molecules on and off. Scientists image the same area multiple
times, letting just a few interspersed molecules glow each time.
Superimposing these images yields a dense super-image resolved at the
nanolevel. In 2006 Eric Betzig utilized this method for the first time.
Today, nanoscopy is used world-wide and new knowledge of greatest benefit to mankind is produced on a daily basis.
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Eric Betzig, U.S. citizen. Born 1960 in Ann Arbor,
MI, USA. Ph.D. 1988 from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Group
Leader at Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Ashburn, VA, USA.
Stefan W. Hell, German citizen. Born 1962 in
Arad, Romania. Ph.D. 1990 from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,
Göttingen, and Division head at the German Cancer Research Center,
Heidelberg, Germany.
William E. Moerner, U.S. citizen. Born 1953 in
Pleasanton, CA, USA. Ph.D. 1982 from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,
USA. Harry S. Mosher Professor in Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy,
of Applied Physics at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
The Prize amount: SEK 8 million, to be shared equally between the Laureates.
Contact persons: Jessica Balksjö Nannini, Press Officer, Phone +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, jessica.balksjo@kva.se
Måns Ehrenberg, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, +46 70 433 23 81, ehrenberg@xray.bmc.uu.se
This year marks the 275th anniversary of The Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Academy was founded in 1739 and is an
independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the
sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes
special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but
endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.
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